This invention relates to heater arrangements for automotive vehicles of the type adapted to warm the steering wheel during cold weather. It has long been considered desirable to have an arrangement for heating steering wheels of automotive vehicles.
Hand contact with the steering wheel by the operator during cold weather vehicle operation is uncomfortable until sufficient warming of the passenger compartment has taken place. This discomfort is acute to those persons who suffer from arthritis and other disease conditions of the hands.
A number of attempts have been made to provide such a steering wheel heater. The usual approach has involved the use of lengths of resistance wire as heating elements, which are embedded within the steering wheel or extend within a hollow steering wheel. In some instances, a metallic coating applied over the surface of the steering wheel has been employed as a resistance heating element. An electrical current is then arranged to be passed through the resistance wire. Such prior art arrangements, however, have not been successful due to various factors. Some of these prior art arrangements are complex and require major structural modifications of the steering wheel itself which unduly adds to the cost of manufacture. A further difficulty is inherent in the use of a resistance wire which is not well suited to the extreme temperature variations and the flexing and stressing of the steering wheel during steering maneuvers. The durability of such wire in use has not been found to be satisfactory.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangment for heating steering wheels, which is simple and yet effective and can be adapted to an existing steering wheel design without major modifications.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such heated steering wheel in which the heater arrangement is durable and easily able to withstand the stressing involved in executing steering maneuvers and the wide temperature ranges occurring over a period of cold and warm weather vehicle operation.